My parents always use to tell us kids, that clothes styles always come around again, and they were right. Back in the early 1970′s kids in my high school and even college, use to wear overalls and they probably thought that they were wearing the hottest ‘NEW’ fashion trend. I remember my mom saying that she use to hate wearing overalls as a kid, because it reminded her that they use to wear them as work clothes.

Bell bottoms came and went, and then came back again. Same with platform shoes, which brings me to the topic of this post–the Earth Shoes. The Earth Shoes were invented in the 1970′s in Scandinavia and were the brainchild of Danish shoe designer Anna Kalso. She got the idea for the ‘negative heel’ shoes by watching indigenous Brazilians, and the impressions left by their bare footprints as they walked through the beach sand.

Actually, before writing this post, I thought the Earth Shoes were a thing of the past, but I was only partially right. Back in the ’80s, the Kalso Earth Shoes in their first incarnation had become so popular, they couldn’t keep up with demand, so they were no longer able to sell at retail in the United States. But it was in the 1990′s that the company was revitalized under a new name, Earth, Inc. and in 2001, the Kalso Earth Shoe was officially relaunched.

I had one of the original pairs of the Kalso Earth Shoes, like those shown in the picture above. I never really liked the look of the shoe, I thought they looked like duck feet, but they were comfortable to wear.

And as it goes, that Earth Shoe style sole seems to be coming around again in the form of another shoe, Shape Ups by Sketcher. The curved sole is reminiscent of the old Earth Shoes, don’t you think?

Check out the Kalso Earth Shoe website, they have a great story on how they got started and a historical timeline:
http://www.earthbrands.com/kalsoearthshoe